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Abstract: California Sea Lions are highly maneuverable swimmers, capable of generating high thrust and agile turns. Their main propulsive surfaces, the foreflippers, feature multiple degrees of freedom, allowing their use for thrust production (through a downward, sweeping motion referred to as a “clap”), turning, stability and station holding (underwater “hovering”). Additionally, their flexible bodies and amphibious nature make them an excellent platform to inspire the next generation of unmanned underwater vehicles. Through multiple interdisciplinary studies of the fundamental systems of sea lion locomotion, we have designed and built a swimming robotic platform to further both our scientific and robotic goals. These studies include: geometric and kinetic studies of both forward swimming and maneuvering, Fore- and hindflipper studies, several robotic platforms to investigate the fluid mechanics and control of their thrust production, in situ measurements of swimming, and many more. These have all informed the robotic platform, SEAMOUR, that is capable of sea lion-inspired swimming.
Bio: Dr. Megan C. Leftwich is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The George Washington University. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a B.S.E. degree from Duke University. Prior to joining GW, she was the Agnew National Security Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Lab from 2010 to 2012. Her current research interests include the fluid dynamics of rotating airfoils, high performance jetting for aquatic locomotion, unsteady activation for undulatory propulsion, and the fluid dynamics of human birth. Prof. Leftwich has a deep interest in diversity in technical fields and STEM education from the first year through the Ph.D., and currently serves as the Director of the Center for Women in Engineering. Professor Leftwich is an Office of Naval Research 2017 Young Investigator Award Recipient. Additionally, she is the winner of the 2019 Early Career Researcher Award at George Washington University, the 2018 SEAS Dean’s Faculty Recognition Award, the 2017 SEAS Outstanding Young Researcher Award and the 2016 SEAS Outstanding Young Teacher Award. Her work on unsteady propulsion has been profiled in over 20 popular media venues including: Wired, CNN's Great Big Story, the Smithsonian Magazine and the New York Times.
Host: Haibo Dong